Minimum wage: C’ttee to submit report this week

ABUJA—BARING any last minutes change, the tripartite committee approved by the Federal Government to review the minimum wage will submit its report this week.

Although the committee was supposed to present its report last month, the public holidays to mark Eid-el-Kabir affected the date.

Vanguard reliably gathered that the committee met, yesterday, at Trsnscorp Hilton, Abuja and a highly placed source privy to the meeting told Vanguard that the organised labour was pressing that the report be concluded today.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Vanguard that though the government representatives had requested for more time, labour felt the report of the committee had been delayed for too long.

“We are pressing that the report is made ready today. We are supposed to conclude everything about the report in August but the Sallah holiday affected the planned date. Though the government representatives have requested for more time, we feel that it is long overdue,” the source said.

On the amount labour was demanding, the source said it was not the issue at present and that the leadership of labour had before now proposed N65,500 and that the position remained the same.

On the allegation that the state governors opposed a new minimum wage, the source, who is a member of the committee, said already, governors had made proposals on what they wanted to pay.

He said: “Some of the governors have come up to propose how much they will pay in the new minimum wage, so, I don’t think that all of them have opposed the idea of new minimum wage.”